Comments | rachelmanija: Class readings: LGBTQ issues in Japan (pre-Meiji Japan)

rachelmanija

Class readings: LGBTQ issues in Japan (pre-Meiji Japan)

Mar 06, 2012 13:49

Cut for length. Introductory article on homosexuality in Pre-Meiji Japan. The head of the temple where we're staying is an LGBTQ activist (I believe a straight ally), and we're meeting with Kyoto LGBTQ activists in a coffee shop while we're there.

( St. Francis Xavier, whose embalmed body is preserved in Goa, India, and was on display until a woman bit off both his big toes, visited Japan in the 1540, and wrote of his horror at seeing that for the Zen monks at Hakata (in Kyushu), 'the abominable vice against nature is so popular that they practice it without any feeling of shame.' )

lgbtq, trip: japan 2012, psychology: depth

Comments 14

_profiterole_ March 6 2012, 22:38:49 UTC

Japan love! <3

(The comment has been removed)

rachelmanija March 6 2012, 23:24:43 UTC

My apologies for the misleading title. This article was just about male-male love. There are more articles which I haven't read yet.

jinian March 7 2012, 00:02:00 UTC

"the abominable vice against nature"

How is this not already a band?

I mean, DOT TUMBLR DOT COM. Please?

marzipan_pig March 7 2012, 01:29:46 UTC

Is it mostly man/boy that's documented or other stuff too?

skull_bearer March 7 2012, 01:59:49 UTC

There a mention of love between warriors, so I guess not?

rachelmanija March 7 2012, 05:12:51 UTC

Not just man-boy - plenty of man-man too.

sovay March 7 2012, 02:30:42 UTC

Discussion of kabuki and failed government attempts to make it less sexy.

. . . How was that attempted?

rachelmanija March 7 2012, 05:25:15 UTC

This is pretty hilarious. First they banned actresses, because people were getting obsessed with them. Boys took on women's roles, and people then got obsessed with the boys. Then they banned the boys. (Boys kept sneakily performing anyway, wearing men's hairdos.) Then they demanded that all plays have a plot, ie, not be PWP (Plot What Plot).

sovay March 7 2012, 05:32:17 UTC

First they banned actresses, because people were getting obsessed with them. Boys took on women's roles, and people then got obsessed with the boys. Then they banned the boys.

*snerk*

Then they demanded that all plays have a plot, ie, not be PWP (Plot What Plot).

That is great.

I gather it did not work.

lady_ganesh March 7 2012, 22:13:25 UTC

That is super-hilarious. (I love this whole entry anyway.)